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Cameron dreams of ‘re-shoring’ UK’s economy

In his speech to the annual gathering of world political and economic leaders in Davos, Switzerland, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said today (24 January) he saw a chance for his country to become the “Re-Shore Nation” and pull jobs and economic activity “back home”.

Cameron said that globalisation did not mean that “the East wins while the West loses” and that it was time to bring jobs that were once offshored back from East to West.

He said that his government had set out a long-term economic plan to secure the country’s economic future. This program, he believes, reduces taxes to help hard-working people become more financially secure, and drives job creation by backing small business and enterprise with better infrastructure and lower jobs taxes, among other things.

He added that there were more than 1.6 million new private sector jobs since early 2010, when he took over as Prime Minister, leading the first coalition government in the UK since World War II. Also, he said that since then, there were around 400,000 more small businesses and that over 25 million people benefited from tax cuts.

He made reference to his campaign to cut red tape, saying that £1.2 billion (€1.45 billion) of red tape has been saved. “Pushing for the removal of the most problematic EU regulations” contributed to this, he said.

“Ernst & Young now say Britain is the best place in Europe for new entrepreneurs […]We are proud of the Indian investment in Jaguar Land Rover, proud that Emirates invested in a new stadium for Arsenal and Etihad have invested in Manchester City”, Cameron said.

Corporation tax will soon be as low as 20%, the lowest in the G7 and as low as 10% for companies that turn innovation into manufacturing, Prime Minister also said.

But Camron added that his country could do more than that and bring back home jobs that once fled to Asia.

“The food manufacturer Symingtons is moving its factory from China to Leeds. Hornby the model train manufacturer is bringing some of its manufacturing from India to Britain,” Cameron said, adding that millions of jobs could be available for re-shoring globally.

Among the factors for pulling back companies back home he mentioned shortening supply chains, more customisation, new technologies such as 3-D printing.

EU can do it as well, but…

Cameron said that much as Britain could be the “Re-shore nation”, Europe could benefit from this too, but only if it would act to make re-shoring as attractive as possible.

“Right now, economies in Europe have a unique opportunity to accelerate this new trend of jobs coming back home”, Cameron said, adding that Europe’s main strengths was liberal democracy and “an unashamedly pro-business regulatory environment – with labour market flexibility, low jobs taxes and a willingness to pave the way for new business and new business models”.

But he added that the fight had not yet been won, attacking “some in the European Commission” who according to him “seem to think that if they’re not producing new regulations they’re somehow not doing their job”.

He didn’t omit to criticise the European Parliament as well, where according to him some MEPs were “tempted to gold plate every piece of legislation”.

Cameron also made a passionate plea in favour of shale gas, warning that if the EU imposed “burdensome, unjustified or premature regulatory burdens” on shale gas exploration in Europe investors would “quickly head elsewhere”.

Positions:

John Cridland, Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said following Cameron’s speech:

“The EU must focus on growth and competitiveness to help re-shore jobs and activities back to the UK and the continent.

“The benefits of EU membership to the British economy far outweigh the costs and if the EU were to become more outward-looking, strengthen the Single Market and take an approach to regulation that supports, rather than obstructs firms, there would be real potential for bringing more jobs back.

“As our European umbrella organisation BUSINESSEUROPE argues increasing industrial competitiveness should be a key priority for EU reform, which would encourage more companies to re-shore.”

Comments

By :La Paglia Nunzi... – Posted on :Sun, 26/01/2014 - 12:47

Dear David Cameron,

i think the system and institutional mainfraime in Commonwealth area Uk & Ireland is the most competitive
in Europe at moment.
The legislation for example for financial sector in monetary area for example it is different but most competitive and efficiently because it is flexible and open for international investitor worlwide private and institutionals sectors.
Well, it is not easy the armonitation in Europe about the legislation for many reasons but we must work in this direction, in my opinion, for a better live in Europe and development social.
I hope to meet you and meantyme i wish you a nice sunday !

NATO will launch a war against Russia in the Caucasus.
Ara Sarkissian , Academician, President of the Academy of Geopolitics ...
In Ukraine, the conflict between protesters and pro-Western President Viktor Yanukovych
crossed over to the opposition of some power of the western regions . U.S. is long overdue to intervene in the conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the outset supported the crisis , and even now he is not going to give up. Odnako strategic reality is that Washington only able to lead Ukraine to Russia's orbit . The EU has become fragmented and indecisive . Frightening parallels with the mistakes that Europe made in the Balkans in the early 1990s , too obvious . Today , as then, the European Union, obviously does not understand what is at stake , and therefore not in a hurry to prevent a crisis developing in the neighboring state . Most of Europe's energy supplies go through Ukraine, and pipelines are concentrated in the western part of the country , where local authorities on Thursday defected to the opposition .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XQbgmNLHHo&feature=youtu.be

While it's absolutely essential to bring jobs and industry back to Europe, this plan may not bring as many benefits as it is claimed. The only way to outcompete asian manufacturers with their access to cheap labor is by introducing new labor saving technology, such as the mentioned 3d printer. This however will result in manufacturers that employ fewer workers. The jobs will be better paid but there will be less of them. Congratulations on the effort but I don't think the problem is solved yet. A better way forward in the longer term would be fully autonomous production machinery coupled with better wealth sharing programs for the population. This is the 21st century after all, why go backwards?

Conservative lobbies are fantastic!
As a first move, they move jobs abroad to have the possibility to lower salaries and welfare at home.
Then, they promise to take them back, IF ONLY salaries could be made even lower, and welfare totally destroyed...
Cheers to their supporters and electoral base, "cornuti e mazziati" (south Italian for "cheated and beaten").

Background

European Union regulation is strangling economic growth and costing the continent billions of euros, according to a British government report on 14 October 2013 that Prime Minister David Cameron hopes will bolster his case for reform of the 28-nation bloc.